Max. Temperature of spot lamp

Hey guys.
I just joined the site.

I am getting my BP on thursday, so I am setting it all up for him now.
While running my UTH and Spot lamp, I am getting about a temp of 85 on the substrate (outdoor carpeting), but I am getting a temperature of like 96-98 under my spot lamp.
Is that way too hot?
Everywhere I have read has said that the maximum temperature should be about 90.
Should I invest in a rheostat, or is the 96-98 range fine?

thanx.
Jeremy.

It depends where you took the temperature. Are you using a temp gun or digital thermometer with probe? If you're measuring the heat lamp temp up high in the cage, I'd say that's fine as long as the snake can't get up there with a branch or anything. Good temperatures can be between 90-95 on the hot side of the tank, and 80-85 on the cool side of the tank. If the heat lamp is getting the tank too hot, you can just get a lower wattage bulb if you can.
I myself prefer not to use heat lamps though. I find it difficult to keep humidity up with them drying out the tank. I rely on the heat pad, and it heats up the tank fine.

And of course, welcome to the site! Any questions you have, dont hesitate to ask. :)

I am using a probe at substrate level.

The 96-98 I was getting was on top of this tree thing I have which is a few inches under the mesh cover.

My cold end substrate temperature is about 78-80, and my hot end substrate because of the UTH is about 88. Do I even need the spot lamp?

However, the air at the top of the tank above the cold end (I have a thermometer there) reads around 72.
That is the reason I thought I needed the spot lamp (to raise that air temperature to around 80's)

If your cool end is around 80 and warm end is around 90 then you're fine without the lamp. That's basically my temperatures currently right now. My warm hide is 88-90 and cool hide is 79-83. :)

IT doesn't matter if the temperature a foot above the cold hide is 73 ish? (still in the tank?)

Not unless the snake will be flying around up there ;)

My snake knows how to fly. Are you saying this is not normal?! :P